Reading in March 2009

[Hobbit]

This is where you tell us what you're reading in SF this month. Good or bad, please let us know what you thought.

Over to the Book Club....

The Fantasy Book Club discussion is on a recently published and perhaps controversial book publication: The Steel Remains by Richard K. Morgan.

Mark

[Tidus]

One of the books I am going to read this month is 'Eye of the storm' by John Ringo.

[Tanaros]

The last book I read was Dinner at Deviant’s Palace by Tim Powers. Before that, I have only read one of his books, The Anubis Gates to be exact, and was really looking forward to reading another of his books. The Dinner has that Mad Max and The Boy and his Dog feel to it – Earth after nuclear or some other kind of global disaster. To me, that part felt a bit outdated but the atmosphere was pretty well established and it provided a good background for a very interesting plot. What started as an attempt to rescue a girl from the clutches of a vicious cult, turns into a duel of almost cosmic proportions. The book is a rewarding read, with certain comic aspects (hemogoblin and the fortuneteller were my favorite), but do not expect any twists similar to those in Anubis. All in all, very satisfying.
Then, I was in a mood for something different so I picked up Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds. I needed some space. Looks good so far.

[chitman13]

I finished Journey Into Space by Toby Litt last night. I'm not really sure how I feel about the book - the story was okay, but it appeared to me that is was simply a literary book dressed in sci-fi clothes.

The story was about the situation on board the first generational colony ship sent out from Earth and focuses on that situation while looking at some characters from four generations, each a descendant of the previous one. It focuses so much on being descriptive that it failed to completely grab me - it felt like an examination of what would happen rather than a story of what would happen. A real shame

[Hobbit]

Yeah, that's pretty much how I read it, Mark:

This was OK, but sadly I enjoyed it a lot less than I hoped to.

It is clever, there's some nice takes on society and future societies, but overall it left me thinking that it was wanting to be more than it was.

I get the impression the writer would like to be Douglas Adams: but he's not.

Mark

[Seak]

I just finished Starship Troopers this weekend on Audiobook and it was great. It's already one of my favorite books. I loved the action, basic training, and even the philosophical points have me continually thinking. That's when you have a great book, when it changes how you think. Loved it.

[vortexreader]

Originally Posted by chitman13

I finished Journey Into Space by Toby Litt last night. I'm not really sure how I feel about the book - the story was okay, but it appeared to me that is was simply a literary book dressed in sci-fi clothes.

The story was about the situation on board the first generational colony ship sent out from Earth and focuses on that situation while looking at some characters from four generations, each a descendant of the previous one. It focuses so much on being descriptive that it failed to completely grab me - it felt like an examination of what would happen rather than a story of what would happen. A real shame

I've just about finished Journey Into Space and I'm absolutely enthralled by it.

[suciul]

I finished Shadow of the Scorpion by N. Asher.

Prequel/last book in the Cormac saga offers all that you expect in a Polity novel; a fast and satisfying read, however it does not offer anything essentially new for Polity "veteran reader" and it is quite predictable in some ways.

The novel rounds Ian Cormac's character well showing his beginning as soldier and later ECS agent with childhood flashbacks.

It could also serve as a good introduction to the 5 book "main" Cormac saga and I think that newcomers to Mr. Asher's work would enjoy it greatly

[pat5150]

Just finished Kay Kenyon's City Without End, and it's definitely the best volume of the series so far.

No offense to Peter F. Hamilton and the other scifi authors in the middle of ongoing series, but The Entire and the Rose could well be the best game in town!

Cheers,

Patrick

[chitman13]

Sounds intetresting Pat, it's a series I've seen but never picked up but have seen around the web. I'll have to look into it, although some of the other sci-fi seies' that I'm reading at the moment would take a fair bit to beat!

I finished Eon by Greg Bear yesterday - another 'classic' that I have been wanting to read for a while. It's interesting in the fact that it wasn't what I was expecting - at least after the first 1/3 or so - as it started to concentrate more on the descendants of humanity. The whole USA vs Russia Cold War-type scenario felt extremely dated, but the writing managed to get me past that aspect of the story and the science in Eon is some of the more thorough that I've read - Greg Bear must have done quite a bit of research before writing this. I did feel this sometimes distracted me a little from the story, but only on a couple of occasions. Still, none of this stopped me from enjoying it and I'm glad to have read it, although I can't say I'd recommend it without hesitation - there are plenty of other sci-fi novels out there that are simply better.

[Hobbit]

Not sure how Pat got to it, but I remember it is a series GRRM liked, the first couple of volumes at least.


Been a while since I read Eon, Mark: 1983? Would be quite interesting as a reread, I think. At the time I though it was good: old style SF with a 'modern' science slant. Since then of course we've got Hamilton, Reynolds and Asher, who I suspect would give Bear a run for his money.

Mark

[chitman13]

I think that date's about right - if I had read the book when it was released it would have blown me away, it certainly felt ahead of its time in some respects. But as you say, with writers like that coming along since then we get spoiled nowadays!

[suciul]

Originally Posted by chitman13

I think that date's about right - if I had read the book when it was released it would have blown me away, it certainly felt ahead of its time in some respects. But as you say, with writers like that coming along since then we get spoiled nowadays!

I read Eon and its sequel (Eternity or something like that) in the early 90's and it still read very well; then there was another sequel (Legacy??), somewhat indirect though, that was good too, but now I looked once through the books and they feel so dated....

Actually of Greg Bear work only Moving Mars still excites me today, while the latest one (City at the End of Time) was so bad that was pretty unreadable - though of course it got on best of 08 lists on name, but I doubt many people finished it...

I finished David Weber Safehold 3 By Heresies Distressed and as usual it was my most awaited sf of 09 until fall at least, though from what I know will be published only Nova War has a chance of giving it a run for the money for #1; I re-read it once and I will most likely reread it several times more this year, and of course I re-read Safehold 1 and 2 for the nth time...

For some reason no contemporary writer resonates with me as Mr. Weber and as mentioned in another thread he is one of 3 authors that I read tens of thousand of pages - easily 10-15k original pages in and then many, many rereads - and I drop anything I read when I get any of his novels, drafts...

I tend to get tired of long series fast - even the Polity series started to become less exciting and while I owned Shadow of the Scorpion for months now, I have not read it yet, same with Eric Flint's 163* and Grantville Gazette which again are starting to lose its luster for me, only from Weber series I could not get enough...